Truce
by Valefor
Summary: An invitation extended. Sora manages to get Mimiru to go to a dungeon with him (again), but something is most definetly awry... Light fluff, or whatever. Love Sora. :) (Finished)
1. Invitation

**[[**_** Something I intend to actually finish (memories of a certain FFIX fic come to mind). Call it fluff, but I favor the lighthearted stuff just as I like dark. :) Sora's a cutie. Subsequent chapters will be uploaded soon - I'm actually getting through this one at a decent clip, I think. :) In any case, hope ya likes. Review, flame, whatever suits your fancy. 3 **_**]]**__

Dun Loireag was very pretty when you got down to it. Skies that stay forever blue, clouds forever white, and grass free of ants and pesky bugs that bite.

Dull place.

The rise of a trio of golden rings announced the arrival of yet another in The World. The man that stood there was clad in black, with bits of violet here and there. Long green locks of hair hung before smoldering scarlet eyes.

It didn't surprise him at all that the area around the Chaos Gate found itself instantly devoid of other players.

The Twin Blade rarely hung around the root towns, if simply because there.. wasn't a whole lot to do in them. Supplies were always kept on hand, since they were rather easy to find scattered about the dungeons he visited. Saving his progress wasn't extremely neccessary since, well... he didn't ever die, really. But today he decided to hang around and see what might turn up. He prowled around the Gate, dividing his attention between a curious group of players gathered by one of the shops and the swirling mass of gold and blue.

People were always coming and going, as if they couldn't decide which server they wanted to stick on. On one memorable occasion, a Wavemaster of some sort warped in, met Sora's eyes, and gated back out to some other locale without as much as a blink or anything else, for that matter.

Sora could only snort and laugh.

He wasn't watching when a certain Heavyblade logged in, but she noticed him right off the bat. "Gack!" she exclaimed, which of course triggered Sora to turn his head so he could look over his shoulder at a sour looking Mimiru gathering her wits.

"Ahh, Mimiru-chan," he crooned to her dryly. He knew she wouldn't stick around for too long; imagine that, someone disliking his company! Her loss, he mused silently, not bothering to supress the sneer that habitually creeped onto his face. 

"Erm, hi there, Sora," she said with much hesitance. Mimiru wasn't very good at hiding away emotions. Now, aggrivation mixed in with loathing was written across her very movements, from the erratic twitch of her fingers upon the hilt of her massive sword, to the ticking of her eyebrows. It was cute, really. "Didn't think you'd be here..."

"Amazing what boredom can do. I didn't think I'd be here either." He made sure to keep his movements slow as he turned all the way to face her full on. If he were anyone else, he might have bothered to consider her in a slightly different light. After all, she _was_ very pretty. The darker tint of her skin, in addition to the scythed off tattoos of yellow that banded her cheeks and arms gave her a faintly exotic sort of look. Pity her legs were obscenely long to the point to where he couldn't help but think of an ostritch whenever he saw her. (Physical illusion.)

Mimiru's voice interrupted his thoughts. "So what _are_ you doing, anyway? Nothing good, I bet."

"Nothing good indeed. Simply 'nothing' would be accurate as well."

The sword-toting girl didn't say anything for a while, and neither did he; she would clare, catch herself claring, look at her feet, and resume glaring all over again. Nervousness... so silly. As a rule, root towns were no-violence zones anyway. Yet she still feared him, and at that he snickered. "You know, Mimiru... Maybe we didn't really set off on the right foot."

Suspiciously she narrowed her eyes and set the back of a hand against the metal plating covering a side of her hips. Sora persisted, however, seeing as she didn't look quite the bit in the mood to engange in whatever conversation he was trying to persue.

"Ne, ne? Howsabout we... go to a dungeon? It'll be fun!"

"What is it you want?" she countered, donning a muted sneer. Sora did his best to look hurt.

"Do you really think so little of me? BT's less cold than you are."

"What are you talking about? BT _hates_ you."

"I know," he conceded finally. True enough - that witch had never held much favor for him, though the same could be said of what Sora thought of that particular Wavemaster. "But you don't see me slicing _your_ throat all the time. Come on... Just this once? Then I'll leave you alone... maybe."

Her eyes flickered with the tongues of a temper hardly held at bay. All their previous encounters had been... interesting. That is, they involved her trying to slice him in two, and failing every single time. Not surprising considering how heavy that sword must be... Heavy hitters, yes, when their targets can't hop around and easily evade them. Finally she let out an exasperated sigh, rolling her eyes at the dark Twin Blade who pestered her so much. "Fine, fine, just this once... But you better keep your yakking down to a minimum!"

"Hai, hai," chirped Sora as he stepped towards the Chaos gate. "You can pick whatever field you like... Theta Server isn't much of a challenge for me."

A party invitation was sent her way (thank goodness for member addresses) and accepted with a lavish display of glaring. Mimiru grumbled something beneath her breath - words sounding suspiciously colorful - before promtly being whisked away in the company of the gate rings. Moments later, a small tone sounded: a private message containing the keywords she had chosen. Then he too vanished from Dun Loireag, setting the minds of a great number of players hanging out in the town at east.

Player killers were such a nuisance.


	2. Proposition

Meadows of green spread all around them, interrupted here and there by spires of painted stones; runes of sorts, maybe, placed merely for decoration. Mimiru paid them no heed. Rather, she stormed back and forth a few times infront of him with her arms crossed, glaring at various points of the horizon. When she caught the curious stare he was giving her, she muttered, "Forgot Fairy Orbs."

A quick glance at the on-screen map revealed... nothing. Varying shades of gray marked out terrain, yet magic portals and more importantly the field's dungeon were unaccounted for. He held a hand up above his eyes as if to shield them; above, the virtual sun shone brightly through feather-whisps of clouds. "Pfft, Fairy Orbs. We're supposed to explore on our own! It's more fulfilling that way."

His companion didn't look very impressed, nor did she stop her angry pacing. "It's faster if we know exactly where we're going. I want this over with as soon as possible."

"Tsk, tsk, Mimiru-chan," he chided softly. "It's hard to enjoy yourself if you rush through everything." Step by step he began to wander out into the field, heading towards a cluster of tall stones. Dungeons typically were marked off with such structures, and it might sooth Mimiru's nerves to know at least half of their venture - locating the dungeon that is meant to be explored - had been completed without much of a hitch.

A cut off noise, like gasp and a growl mashed together into a single gutteral utterance, was the only sound she made. Seemed like she wasn't in the mood for complaining today, a notion that surprised Sora just a little. In silence they walked with Mimiru trailing behind, and as they drew closer it became clear that Sora's intuition was right. The stones they approached were clumped together in a circular formation, with a single thicker stone sitting in the middle. At its base, the opening of a cavern gaped, with torches lit on either side of the entry way. "There it is!" she yelped finally, making for a hasty jog towards it.

It was because of the smug leer she shot towards Sora that she didn't pick up upon a very significant detail: from the entry way came the faintest sounds of fear. That is, gasping, the rapid patter of footsteps, hasty scritch-scratch of weapons rubbing against stone. Up the slight incline came a Blademaster looking a little more than frightened. His eyes were wide with panic and the pace at which he stumbled out into the light immediately set Sora on edge. A very familliar expression... One didnt go around as a Player Killer without being familliar with such a face.

When the Blademaster spotted them he flailed his arms about, yelling, "Help!" Mimiru halted herserlf abruptly before she ran into the poor player, and for a moment she fogot about her predicament. "What happened?"

The man heaved and collapsed onto his knees at Mimiru's feet, glancing nervously back into the darkness of the dungeon entrance. His sword had been dropped along the way up, and it glinted coldly from the bleak hollowed stone. "Some weird monster... The rest of my party's still in there! We tried fighting it but no one could even put a stratch on it!"

A case of newbies taking on something they couldn't handle? Sora's eyes narrowed as he dutifully marched towards the dungeon. "Tch. Weakling?" he crooned at the heavily perspiring man. What could be so dangerous on the Theta Server? Granted, few made it to the levels he had conquered; most tended to tire of The World, or at least of a single character, long before they even made it to the 70's and 80's. Takes dedication to be the best, after all.

"H-hey!" Mimiru called out. "We can't just leave him here!"

Sora didn't pause. He had made it half way down the stairs when he called back, "He can walk, can't he?"

The growl he heard put a smile on his face. Down the steps the Heavyblade stomped, half-muttering apologies to the befuddled player left up in the sun.

As they passed through the entry chamber, a long hall stretched out before him. Dim torches hung at spaced intervals along the length of the corridor, shining orange light upon the dark stone that made up the dungeon's appearance. Cavernous, ominous... deathly quiet. While Mimiru was hesitant to even take a step into the room, Sora strode in without a second thought. No magic portals in sight, so... no monsters. "If you straggle, you'll get left behind," he said nonchalantly. "Mr. Monster might come up and get you."

"You're quick to shrug it all off," came a heated reply. "I don't think he was fibbing. You of all people should know about the weird things going on in The World..."

"Of course, of course. The most recent discussions on the Boards have been about these so-called 'invincible monsters'... wonder if we just found one?" The thought delighted Sora, brought a fit of snickers through him. It made him feel pretty good, but Mimiru didn't look any less worried. Her sword wasn't drawn but she held onto the hilt of it tightly. "The tougher monsters always live in the lower levels. Our friend must have run all the way up."

They passed through the doorway at the end of the massive hall and began weaving their way through subsequent chambers. Not once did they see a magic portal, nor any treasure boxes, jars, or occasional 'warrior's body' that usually littered dungeons. "He said his party was still there... I hope they got away."

"It wouldn't surprise me at all if they didn't. Or if they weren't even here to begin with. These new player killers like tricking people into trapping themselves in dungeons," he remarked, with a hint of contempt curling his lip into a frown. "Tactless."

Somewhere behind him, Mimiru giggled. "I take it you don't like them?"

Slowly Sora nodded, halting momentarily at the end of a forked path to glance at each of his choices. "Not at all. They make me look bad." The rightmost one looked recently worn... kind of. Both ways looked identical more or less, but the fire's light shone oddly upon the floor... The faint lines of scratches lit up for an instant before darkening again, turning invisible to the eye. But he waited for Mimiru to catch up a little before continuing down the hall. "Besides, they'd be stupid to try anything to us. You've got _me_ with you."

Mimiru could not be certain if she saw him wink at her, but either way, a shiver crept up her spine. This particular Twin Blade weirded her out more than she'd ever care to admit. If the hair wasn't enough, it was the strange expressions he was so fond of wearing. Always with a grin of some sort, though of course the colors of it could vary in an instant from cheery (or as close to cheery as this guy got) to murderous.

They rounded one last corner and came upon the set of stairs that would take them down to the lower levels of the dungeon. Thoughtlessly, Mimiru started to walk down them, but Sora hesitated. "Stop," he commanded simply, ignoring the heated glare that was shot at him. Intently he stared down the shadow-coated stairs, listening hard, when finally it came to him: the faint sounds of battle. Somewhere within the dungeon life stirred, aided by the sparks of steel and the rush of magic. Battle cries bounded weakly to his ears, but it wasn't long before the echoes were interrupted by harsh, cold screams.

Mimiru blinked. "We're too late...?"

"Late? No, no." Casually he stretched his arms out to the sides, and clenched his fists. The dandy thing about katars, or at least his katars, are that not only do they look extremely pretty and they can cut through things (ie, people) better than your ginsu knives or what have you, but they operate with a nifty trigger system. A clech of the fist, and _shing_! Shiny blades ready for action. With much grandeur Sora strode to Mimiru's side, rubbing the edges of his blades together enthusiastically. "Just in time, I'd say. I _told_ you this would be fun~!"

Then, before Mimiru could respond, he bounded his way down. Waves of "Shu-pu-pow" and other such nonsense noises doubled upon each other, surrounding Mimiru in a ghastly cacophony of morbid glee. Defeated, she sighed... "What are you talking about, 'fun?' Weirdo..." Quitting in the middle of things...? No way. Mimiru had no choice but to follow after him. Silently she waded down the stairs, into the chilly depths that awaited her. 


	3. Presentation

**[[ _Pardon if quality falters here and there here; most of this chapter was written in the wee hours with pudding as my only source of energy, and I will tell you that pudding is not the best place to go if you need something to keep you awake. Pretty yummy stuff, though. :) And I guess I could always edit if reading over this again makes me weep._ ]]**

Dust rose. Dust fell. Dust settled. Corpses turned ashen grey sprawled upon the ground. Dispassionate, the beast stood awaiting more fighting, but none came. One was missing. Two lay dead. It stared at their bodies as they faded from sight. Regeneration elsewhere. They would not be foolish enough to return.

----------

"Hellooooo~?"

"Would you be quiet? There's no one here."

Useless. Sora wove his way through hallways and empty chambers, deceptively reckless in his ways. Like the level above, this one had been cleared of all magic portals. Theoretically, that would mean all the monsters had been taken care of but...

"I know you're around here soooomewheeeeere~!"

"Oh, you're hopeless!" Mimiru grouchily crossed her arms and proceeded to glare sharply at what was supposed to be a wall, but Sora's face suddenly popped up in front of her out of nowhere. Needless to say, Mimiru was more than spooked. She jumped, promptly tripped over her own feet, and fell hard onto her rear in a clatter of armor and sword.

"Ssh!" he hissed, raising a finger before his lips. "You'll wake it up!" The smile he wore did not speak well for the player killer's sanity. The _feel_ of battle held fast to the very walls of the cavern, and it did nothing less than set him into a very good mood. Not to mention the chance to see first hand what the latest rumors had spoken of...

"You're making more noise than I am!" she shouted. Monster or not, she was really starting to get annoyed.

This looked to take him genuinely by surprise. His face reverted to an expression of empty thoughtfulness as he blinked up at the ceiling. "Oh...? Guess you're right."

Mimiru was not amused; quite the opposite of Sora. He shrugged and darted off again, dissapearing down a gloomy hallway (as if any of them were anything other than gloomy) with giggles in his wake. The World had it's loonies, and it wouldn't have surprised her one bit of Sora just happened to reign supreme over the lot of them. Growling, she ambled up to her feet, and began to wander towards a corridor yet to be invaded by her noisy companion. If there _was_ some terrible monster there, it was being awfully quiet...

----------

Box. Four walls, ceiling, floor. Lit by grim firelight, dominated by a single presence. Blind eyes (mindlessness pervades; maddening) watch the single doorway, the door through which those three had come. Something else approaches.

The one that fled? A dull groan filled the room. Soon.

----------

Footsteps, rapid and loud, had been the only sound other than his own laughter that had accompanied him through the dungeon. That is until something else had come, and in its departure Sora halted. So something _was_ around... A final doorway stood at the end of a branching hall, framing the faint glow of torchlight. A quick glance behind him revealed that Mimiru had been left behind somewhere. A pity, really; she might've enjoyed taking out some aggrivation on the monster. "First come, first serve," he sang to himself, and slowly he walked forward.

----------

Mimiru froze. Widened eyes searched all around her, yet nothing could be found. But... she had heard something, right? "Sora...?" No, it couldn't have been him... could it? He had run off somewhere else, leaving her alone...

What nerve that guy had!

----------

At first glance, it might have been something utterly unremarkable. Such is true of many things: Sora himself, for instance. A foolish looking young man with just an equally foolish (to some) desire to simply enjoy an immensely popular net game. Things are different if you just consider them at face value.

In the center of the room sat a goblin.

Sora blinked a good number of times before he was content that his vision was not playing strange tricks on him. Indeed, the thing he was looking at was... a goblin. A small one. Greenish, too. Within its little goblin hand it carried a little goblin knife, and on its little goblin face it smiled a goblin smile.

A goblin.

"You've got to be kidding," he groaned. "Don't tell me you're the thing that the Blademaster was running from?"

As per request, the goblin said nothing. It did not move, either, except for the occasional twitch here and there - now that was odd, are monsters supposed to do that? Sora squinted a little at the creature. Its shoulders jerked from time to time in an almost painful looking manner. Something was odd about it's skin, too... It almost looked like it was shimmering, though without light. Vague violet shapes danced across its body.

How... interesting.

"You're not just another run-of-the-mill goblin, are you?" he asked the beast, stepping closer. Again, it did little - twitch, twitch! went digital muscle - save glower at the man before it. Dumb beast. (Slave.) Goblins had an annoying habit of being fast runners, always chasing after whoever dared open up their magic portals... This one just stood there. Perhaps because the ones who awoke it had already gone?

In any case, it wouldn't do him much good to dispose of the little beastie. Mimiru might benefit more from the experience, if at all... Such was the trouble with Theta Server: experience gains would only benefit those in the lower half of the level spectrum, and only for a certain amount of levels. "You wait right here," he told the goblin, who seemed completely indifferent to pretty much everything. And then, spinning about upon a heel, he walked back towards the doorway. "Mimiruuuuuuuuu~?"

----------

A voice, stray syllables bounding her way. Her name mashed somewhat ("Irrrruuuuuu?"), but the voice who spoke it unmistakable: Sora. Did he find something? Mimiru picked up her pace, winding through empty rooms until she came upon a length of hallway, which branched off into many smaller halls each with darkened doors at their ends. All except one, in which she could see the silhouette of the green-haired fool.

"So that's where you are!" she called out to him as she began a slight jog closer. "Did you get the monster?"

"There's not much of a monster to be gotten," he confessed, gesturing rather disdainfully to the room behind him. "I figured you'd be low enough in level to appreciate the EXP so I left it alone."

"Gee, thanks." Behind him something moved, brief flicker of shadow appearing and dissapearing so quickly that it went more or less unnoticed. (Outside, a white moon reached the height of its routine climb and began the long trek back down to the horizon.) When she reached him, she hopped upon her tippy-toes to peer over his shoulders. A rather bland looking room waited, practically indistinguisable from the others with sole exception to it's size. "So where is it?"

"Eh? What do you mean?" Perplexion zipped through his face. He turned slightly, enough to give a good scan of the room. The goblin had abandoned its post in the very center, but a faint glint caught his attention and pulled it down. It stared up at him from right beside his feet. Blank eyes, cold eyes...

Mimiru studied the goblin for a few long, silent moments before she had decided that it had to be a joke. Who would run from such a thing, after all? "Umm... Is this it?"

"Yah-huh," replied Sora. "You want to get it, or should I?"

Sighing, Mimiru unslung her massive sword and held it before her with both hands. Sora backed off accordingly, leaving her with the goblin standing in the doorway. "Guess those guys must have been real newbies, huh?"

Twitch. Its face turned upwards, attracted to the flicker of light off a silver edge. Glimmer of light, flash of hot white that burned sightless eyes. A shiver it could not feel shook its body.

"Must have been," he agreed. He took a place off to Mimiru's side, and contented himself with watching the goblin. Something didn't make sense, or maybe it did? Either someone was excessively weak or someone was excessively strong, and neither added up. How could newbies clear out a dungeon and finally lose to a goblin?

Slowly the blade rose like some hand held guillotine, its weilder much preferring that its victum be cleanly sliced in two rather than simply decapitated. "Here's to the end of our dungeon adventure," Mimiru said, sounding much more enthusiastic than she had intended.

Sora lifted an imaginary glass, tipped an imaginary hat. "Here, here."

Swish. Air - or at least the impression of air (useless) - split around the falling blade, cold metal swooping down to make acquaintance with its skull and its body. At the moment of contact, it did not consider what should have been a searing pain running through all its senses (sensation?). Even when the blade ran its due course, making a neat cut straight down through its middle until it landed with a loud scritchy-squeal of steel upon stone, it stared up. A counter that should have run down to zero did not; a creature that should have died did not.

Faint light shone through the heavy wound, splitting it into two halves by a band of white. Mimiru smiled smugly as she gathered her sword back up, returning it to its place upon her back. "Nothing to it!"

As characters gain levels, they gain status bonuses as well. For Heavy Blades, strength and attack power are qualities that are always on the rise. Naturally, as one grows stronger, the weaker monsters that once plagued them become easy hunting, and slaying such monsters in single hits becomes possible. Such is what, by all means, should have happened. Sora knew this, as did Mimiru, but when the goblin failed to dissapate as monsters normally do when they have been defeated...

Little by little, the light grew darker. Violet rays streamed from the goblin's body, and the markings that washed over it brightened: 1, 0, 1, 1, 0, 1, 0, 0...

Mimiru began to back away from the creature, and just as she did it groaned a low, hollow groan. Around its body, greenish forms flickered into existance like lights; flat shapes, rectangles, squares, triangles, lit up one by one, encasing the creature like flimsy luminescent armor. The twitching that had been centralized solely in its shoulders grew stronger to the point of glitching out from time to time; its head found itself separate from the rest of its body from time to time, held in place solely by bindings of swirling violet and crimson... nothingness. (Mend.)

Sora smiled a wolfish smile. "Why, hello there..."

"What happened?" Mimiru asked. "Monsters aren't supposed to do _that_, are they?"

"No, probably not. Looks like we've found a bug." In a single fluid motion, Sora held his katars at the ready and glanced sidelong at Mimiru. "Well, shall we?"

"We," he had said. Mimiru blinked slowly at the player killer... It was well known through tales told on the BBS and by the frantic rantings of the recently respawned that Sora was not one to be easily trusted. Who's to say that after they've finished with this monster that he won't turn on her? _I guess that's all part of the adventure, isn't it...?_

She returned a smile to him as she brought her sword to bear once more, holding it low infront of her. Its edges sparkled brightly despite the gloom that surrounded them, wrapping the caves in murky gray shades, and found itself aimed towards the distorted face of the goblin.

"Let's go!" 


	4. Termination

**[[_ Reviewers are really awesome people. Lotsa love for you guys, since it's you guys that keep fellow writers going. :) Dark Mimiru, I appreciate your concern, but yeah I know about __that_. Rianna, I agree with you completely. I always thought Sora/Mimiru would be kinda cute even if... heh, well. This writer's got ideas to toy with. :D Lessee what we can put together for you guys... Lotsa thanks, again; you guys rock. ]]**

How exactly does one deal with an invincible enemy? Small in stature as it may be, and doubtlessly weak in terms of physical strength... It still held fast to the single thing that would make defeat impossible: imperviousness to damage. An interesting puzzle.

Sora took the first charge, spinning himself around with his blades held outward. The creature groaned and hissed as cuts ran all over its upper body, yet Sora saw them slowly ooze away as he halted in a crouch a short distance behind it. Where gaping wounds had yawned out all over its chest, shoulders, arms, there was nothing but the clammy green of goblin skin, lit up dimly by the glitches that hovered close to its flesh.

Mimiru charged next, slashing down diagonally across the goblin. Again, a huge wound opened up, stretching from one shoulder and ending down by its hip... but that, too, faded away just gradually faded away.

"What the... Are we even hurting it?" she growled. As if to follow up her question, she suddenly stabbed her sword straight through the monster. It made a very unpleasant squishy crunch, as well as a ghastly shriek that made even Sora flinch. Had this been any other goblin, it might have been mildly comedic to see it impaled upon the blade of Mimiru's gargantuan sword, helpless and doomed to being erased yet again... It hunched over the blade, growling quietly at the metal that had punctured its body. Feeble hands grasped at the edges, ignoring the new cuts that blossomed... Its own dagger had been dropped and forgotten.

Mimiru lifted a foot up as if she was going to slide the goblin off of her sword, but a low squeaking noise made her stop. She looked at Sora, thinking that maybe he was making weird noises again, but he seemed to be staring intently at the goblin. Its claws had started to go into the blade, pushing holes through it; THAT had been the source of the noise. "Hey, stop that!" she scolded, shaking a fist at it. "This is my favorite sword!"

Heedless. Absently it began to dig its claws into the very middle of the blade and started pulling outwards, completely oblivious to the fact that by doing so, it was forcing the blade to split in half right through its own body. The sword could only creak in protest, and its bearer fumed as a good half of its length was split in half in such a way that the sword looked more like a giant T than any sort of weapon.

"Masochistic fellow, isn't he?" Sora noted.

Helplessly Mimiru held up her ruined sword, running a hand over where the metal had been forced apart (strangely warm). "It took me _forever_ to get this sword, you little creep!"

An eye twitched. He saw it coming long before Mimiru even set her attention back upon the enemy. "Move," he barked, but she was the sort to look before leaping every single time. Puzzled, she looked at him first, before noticing that the goblin's fists were rushing straight at her. It hit her square in the stomach, knocking her a good distance backwards... The clatter of armor upon the floor was loud and harsh. From beyond the doorway, a stunned Mimiru gasped and scrambled back onto her feet.

Heavy Blades, like their Blademaster counterparts, had the advantage of relatively high defense compared to most of the other classes in The World. Goblins were... weak, weak enough to where usually the only people who had to worry about them were those with fresh characters.

Sora checked the party listing. Mimiru's HP had gone down into the red... "How did... What...?" she breathed, holding a hand up to her stomach. Fear shone clearly through her large greyish eyes. They began to widen as the goblin took one slow step toward her, followed by another, and yet another. Before it could come close enough though, Sora leapt in between it and the Heavy Blade.

"You have healing items, I hope?" He did not look at her when he spoke, settling back into a battle-ready crouch. "Might be helpful to make use of them. One more hit and you're out."

"Er, right..." A pearlescent light washed over her as she used a Recovery Drink, filling most of her HP bar back up to the maximum. The shock of the attack still stayed, though, as well as a dull ache where she had been struck; little bugger's strength stats must have gotten glitched as well as its appearance and HP.

Sora waited until she had been healed before he started off another attack. Before she had the time to blink, he had rammed shoulder first into the monster to knock it a short distance away from her, as well as the only way out of the room. "Doesn't look like that'll be much use for you anymore," he said before diving closer to give the goblin a few new (worthless) cuts lengthwise across its belly. "And it doesn't look like this thing is going to be nice and die for us anytime soon. Any ideas?"

Defeated, Mimiru flung her blade off to the side where it clanged dully upon the stone flooring. "If this is something we can't defeat, then... maybe we should just get out of here? And let some one know that there's something wrong with this monster..."

The goblin charged at Sora but he was quick enough to leap up over it. As he landed, he spun about and slammed the hard metal sheathing that covered his forearms into the goblin's side, sending it sprawling. "Then off you go! That is, unless you forgot to bring a Sprite Ocarina as well."

"No no, I have one." Briefly she shuffled about a conceniently invisible inventory before holding up a small white ocarina. "But, um... What about you?"

It was then that something odd happened. Two separate individuals sitting in two different settings did the exact same thing at the exact same time both in and outside of The World: they blinked, felt their mouth open a little as if they were going to say something, and went about pretending that neither had been surprised in the least bit.

Sora quickly shaped his surprise into a look of amusement, putting on a lop-sided smile. Mimiru on the other hand slipped into looking just a tad sheepish; why was _she_, of all people, concerned about his wellfare anyways? (Coincidentally enough, the same thought ran through hs mind as well.)

The goblin gathered itself back up and glared at Sora, growling low deep within its throat. For all he knew, the fighting might have just been making it stronger since its HP counter wasn't showing proper numbers; random symbols sat above a health bar that seemed to have failed to decrease at all.

"Never leave town without them. So what are you waiting for?" As if doing so would usher her away, he waved a hand at her.

"Aren't you coming along?"

He sighed and spoke in half-monotone, like he was explaining something obscenely simple to a child. "If I leave before you, it'll go after you, and you will die. I'm faster than you are, remember? Things don't hi--"

With his attention split between the two, he did not catch on to the goblin's body language as quickly as he normally would have if he were alone. It had crouched down and sprang forward like a cat, and Sora had moved to dodge just a second too late. He managed to dart off to the side, but not unscathed; claws left a searing pain upon his torso. Then in an instant, the goblin went at him again, this time with fists flying. Sora managed to block one punch but another caught him square in the jaw. Deftly he somersaulted back away from the goblin a few times, landing in a low crouch with a very displeased look on his face. "OW."

Mimiru smirked sweetly. "You were saying?"

Thank goodness for higher levels... Sora grumbled something about unfair advantages as he used a Recovery Drink or two on himself. His only saving grace that time was, of course, his high amount of HP. Twin Blades weren't renown for being very sturdy. "Hurry up and go. See you up top."

"Hai, hai." The gentle chiming of a quiet laugh echoed through the room before she held the ocarina up high and dissapeared.

Once she was gone, Sora let himself slump forward a little and rub sorely at the side of his jaw. "Tch... That really did hurt, you know," he told the goblin. Indifference kept the goblin from responding. "You're really something... Hmm, something else to keep an eye on. Well, until next time... Ta-ta~!" Playfully he waved to the goblin, who had chosen that moment to throw another flurry of punches but Sora was gone before they could sweep through the space he once stood in.

Again, silence reigned within the dusty chamber. The broken creature hobbled back towards the center to wait, for that seemed just a good a place as any to do so, and from that point it could stare far through the doorway and down the halls that led to its own personal domain. Time rendered irrelevant, the passage of it just as meaningless as the few combatants it may drag along with it.

A slow, stupid blink crept across its eyes as another presence filled its chamber. It craned its head from side to side searching it out, but no body was to be seen. From the darkness clinging along the ceiling, trailing serpentine shapes along the nooks and crannies that ran along the top corners of the room, an oily feminine voice uttered a single word: "Wonderful."

And just as quickly as it came to be aware of it, it slipped away and there was nothing but silence. 


	5. Conclusion

"... And then it was like, POW! And that little sucker didn't even see what was coming at it! But then it was like, 'GRRR,' so we were like, 'What, trying to make something of it?' MAN, we were awesome!" Her banded arms flailed about in a series of wild gestures, and Sora just barely avoided getting smacked in the face just as he warped up to the mouth of the dungeon.

Still sitting upon the ground was the Blademaster they saw before, though this time it looked like he had gotten the strength to get up and retrieve its sword, which stuck out from the grass beside him. He was nodding along looking very intrigued at the wild tale Mimiru was spouting at him... No doubt a slightly abridged recollection of their little run in down below. "Wow, are you serious? You guys must have given it a good beating!"

"Oh, yeaaaaaah, nothin' to it. Ne, Sora?" She had her arms crossed but she decided to give him a good slap on the back, as well as a devious wink: _play along!_

"I'm thinking my definition of 'it' might differ from hers," he said cooly as he walked out towards the open grounds a little ways away from the entrance. He could only take so much of being in such cramped spaces, after all. Hard to jump around when there's a ceiling waiting to be smashed into.

Mimiru scoffed in response. "Well, whatever. Just try and avoid this dungeon, ok? There might be other monsters that got messed up."

"All-right, thanks for the advice." A sly look creeped across the Blademaster's face as he regarded Sora. He cupped a hand against the side of his face, as to keep Sora from reading his lips, and whispered something to Mimiru. Sora didn't have to ask what was spoken, nor did he care: the reaction that burst out of Mimiru was satisfying enough.

"_WHAT?_ Where'd you get _that_ idea? Gross, gross, gross! Get out of here before I do to you what I did to that stupid monster of yours!"

The Blademaster laughed a little too hard to be worried about Mimiru's threat. Clumsily he stood up, gathering his sword, and winked at Mimiru before gating back to Dun Loireag.

Sora had a vague idea of what the offending comment might have been: any number of things, all of which probably involved some suggested 'relationship' between himself and the Heavy Blade. Girls got weird about those sorts of things, especially when someone mindlessly sticks their nose into such matters... but he asked anyway. "What idea?"

Her face scrunched up as if she had eaten something that had immediately decided to declare battle upon her stomach lining. "Nothing! I don't want to put weird things into your head."

The field possessed the typical characteristics of grasslands: hills rolled gently into one another, topped off by shimmering waves of perfect emerald grass. It was just like Dun Loireag itself, except with the obvious lack of the crowds that often found themselves in the root town. The dungeon's entryway opened out onto a gently sloping hill, which Sora had wandered a short ways down and sat down upon. He turned a little to wave Mimiru over, and much to his surprise she came. However when she sat down, she did so at a distance. "Too late for that," he said teasingly. "But really, what did he say?"

"Nothing!" she repeated, trying to sound annoyed but failing alltogether; the smile she had pushed away the anger that would normally come from being pestered by him.

"Liar. You wouldn't throw a fit over just nothing, would you?"

She sighed, supressing a shiver at what the Blademaster had asked. "It's really gross."

"So I gathered." For whatever reason, perhaps to try and urge her on, he scooted just a little closer. "But what exactly was really gross?"

Mimiru giggled at the grass, shaking her head slowly. "You're not gonna believe it."

"Depends on what it is," Sora countered.

"Well... He asked if we were... You know..." She idly pulled up a blade of grass and fidgeted with it, folding it into neat little halves. Discomfort, along with a sort of thoughtfullness, veiled her face.

"Hmmm?" As obvious as it was, and as completely foolish as it was, he still wanted to hear it spoken. Silly idea. Simply silly.

"... _together_," she said simply. It took a lot of effort for Sora to keep from laughing, as well as to look even minutely confused about just what she might be implying. Eventually she got the hint, and she continued on unsteadily. "That is to say... Erm... Like boyfriend and girlfriend."

"Ah... And you think that's... gross." A flatly pronounced statement, accompanied by the crossing of arms and the hardening of his expression. Toying with her might have been a little too easy for she was most definetly a little too kind of heart, and kind of nature... All of a sudden she looked very embarrassed and apologetic, but before she could even utter a word to her own defense, Sora had his eyes fixed a spot very far away from Mimiru's face. "I see how it is."

"Er, um, I don't mean 'gross' in a _bad_ way. I mean it's not like I don't like you or anything like that."

Deeper and deeper she would dig herself, unaware and delightfully innocent. Too easy indeed. The slightest touch of a smile wretched control of the very corners of his lips. "Mmhmm. You've disliked me since the first day we met. I remember that look you gave me."

"Oh, please!" she growled. Fists planted themselves against her hips as she quickly took up a stand against Sora's words. "Back then you were just some creepy weirdo I didn't know anything about, and you were trying to get my member address! How else was I supposed to react?"

Immediately Mimiru regretted asking. A bright smile popped up on Sora's face as he mimed handing something over by holding his hands out towards her, and his voice took a slight falsetto tone. "My member address? Of course you can have it, Sora-sama!" Reverting to his normal voice, he added, "See? Easy. Nothing to get bent out of shape over, ne?"

"You're really weird, you know that?" Mimiru asked. It was strange really; most of the people she had come across went out of their way to look real cool and serious. Silver Knight was a perfect example, and Bear himself wasn't much of a goof-off when it came down to it. Sora on the other hand... Wearily she grinned, arching a brow at him. Sora was different.

"I wouldn't have it any other way."

A girl laughed and rubbed at her temples. On a clock sitting on a shelf not too far away, a relatively small number glowed in its harsh neon hues. "Oh geeze, it's really late!" she blurted suddenly. "Mom's gonna _kill_ me if she finds me on the computer!"

It seemed like Sora had lost track of the time as well, for a mildly surprised look took hold of his features. "Oh, so it is. Guess I should get going before I get caught myself." He began to stand up when a hand on his shoulder - Mimiru's, as a quick glance would show - stopped him.

"Hey, umm, I... had a fun time tonight," she said, words tumbling clumsily one after the other. "First time I've fought a killer goblin. First time I've had my sword torn up, too. Maybe we could, um... go to another dungeon again sometime?"

Sora regarded her for a moment. Sleepiness was showing itself through her eyes, as did a sort of shyness. He didn't blame her... If he was conscious of anything at all right then in that moment, it was her hand resting so casually upon his shoulder. In that moment, the fear and agitation she would have harbored for him had dissapeared. In its place stood the warmth and friendliness she extended with everyone else... As subdued as it was, given that it was Sora she was talking to in such an awkward sort of way, it still made Sora smile.

"Any time. Sleep well." He winked and touched her hand as he stood up, running his fingers beneath hers before letting it fall away from him.

Upon tanned cheeks, a touch of pink blossomed. Hastily the Heavyblade stood, turning away from him as she nodded. "You too, Sora." And in an instant she was gone.

Immediately Sora felt as if he could have just passed out right there at his computer. A tremendous sense of weariness took hold of his eyelids, forcing them down as he fought to keep them at least a little bit open. Cautiously, as if poking at a gaping wound, he touched the spot on his shoulder where Mimiru's hand had been with his brow furrowed. Then, as if coming to some unspoken conclusion, he nodded and logged himself out of The World.

Quietly a headset was returned to its place upon a tidy desk top. Streams of silvery light washed in through the open curtains, pouring squares neatly divided by the shadows in the window panes upon the floor. There was no one to smile to save the bright moon high above the city, no one to speak to save the deaf objects that resided in his room. That had never stopped him before.

"Sweet dreams, Mimiru-chan," he whispered as squeaky curtains were drawn shut. Little by little the light shrank away to mere slivers peeking in from the edges of the window, and in the peaceful darkness someone who called himself Sora let himself drift into the arms of sleep. Tomorrow there would be more dungeons to be conquered, more rumors to seek out, but for now he would dream dreams of crystal eyes and warm smiles.

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**[[ _*shrug* :) _]]**


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